


Cacophony

by Noire (downpourcity)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-10-26 21:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10794765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/downpourcity/pseuds/Noire
Summary: Static. Instruments. Wordless lullabies. It only takes one snip to break the piano.





	1. Radio Static

**Author's Note:**

> Working on multiple things at once helps me get back on the writing train. Worry not. I haven't forgotten about the others.

Nightmares, one would usually wake up from one and feel the comfort of somebody close or be greeted by the night in front of them.

 

Angela stood on the balcony of a building, a cigarette pieced between her lips. Her blonde hair floated gently in the air amongst the smoke she produced from her mouth. Her blue eyes reflected the grey city below, the sky overcast with blue peeking through every once in awhile. She took another moment to take in the smoke from her small paper. She tossed the cigarette to the wind, it hung in the air for a moment and then settled onto the street below. 

 

A knock on her door disrupted her peace, her heart stopping for a moment at the pace of the beats to the wooden surface. The sound of plastic hitting the ground greeted her when she turned around, a single old-school tape sat before her. Another one this week from another unwelcome guest. The doctor kneeled down, grabbing the same shaped object, almost adding it to the pile before reading ‘URGENT’ taped to the front of it.

 

She sighed, shaking her head, wondering what this meant and why it was being sent to her. She carefully grabbed it tighter, then transferred it into a device on her countertop. Static, she was greeted with static. The static seemed to go on forever, so while she waited, she decided not to fast forward it, she went on to start washing dishes from last night. The night where she had actually made food for once instead of lazily getting take out. She didn’t remember why she had had time, but for some reason it was really important to make herself food.

 

The static became a common sound to her for about what felt like thirty minutes, the time flying by so quickly that it had seemed like time had vanished from her. The recording stopped with a click. She looked around, blinking, her head hurt, the back of it pounded. She set down the dish she had been washing, noticing cuts on her fingers, and dried blood on her arms. She felt her stomach go, for being a doctor this was oddly terrifying for her to see. What on Earth had cut her while she was washing her dishes, and how on Earth had something as dull as her kitchen knives have caused her to bleed this profusely? 

 

She absently walked to the bathroom, turning on the water and then began to carefully wash off her arms, finding no cuts, dings, or bruises to speak of. Her brow raised, her lips going into a questioning frown. She watched as the water began to flood the sink, the contents turning red, she looked up to the mirror, feeling light headed again. She quickly searched her arms, anxiety grabbing her chest, what had happened? She let out a sigh, wondering if this was just her working to hard and if she needed a break. She hated making arrangements with the Hospital, she would have much rather worked. Work was her life now, it was one of the only things that held to her and made her feel useful. Being at home was an itchy experience for her, she just wanted to move, to make things happen, to save people’s lives and come home at the end of the day or week or month and feel good about herself.

 

It was one of those moments where she felt outside of herself, like she didn’t belong in her own body. The cuts had set her off for the afternoon, the blood an even stranger sight. Angela could drive herself mad trying to theorize what had happened in those short moments, but she decided to ignore them for the moment in order to become rational. When had she even started washing the dishes in the first place? Why was the sun suddenly dipping below the horizon line? It had been afternoon only moments ago. Her brain instantly answered her, making her feel less afraid of whatever this was. Time sometimes felt as though it passed slower or faster depending on what one did. However this was stranger than that. It was as if someone had borrowed her for the day. 

 

She sat down on the sofa, pondering her thoughts. She sighed, turning on the light next to her. She leaned her head onto the cushion, looking out to the orange glow. 

 

The door opened, a woman with long dark hair walked in, she casually put her coat on the rack by the door and then walked over to sit by Angela. She calmly rested herself against her body, smiling gently in her direction.

 

Angela looked over at her with a calm smile, her eyes softening. “You’re home early, Amélie .”

 

The woman with sharp yellow eyes and blue skin settled herself stiffly next to her, closing her eyes to soak in the doctor’s warmth. Then she shifted back, grabbing her chin, doing what  Amélie once did, kissing her gingerly and then shifting away timidly. “Sleep.” She whispered, willing the air in the room to leave Angela’s lungs.

  
Angela wasn’t even remotely tired, but suddenly her limbs and eyes and brain felt fuzzy, disconnected for that moment. Unreal. Her head hit the sofa cushion, she was then thrown into a torrent of dreams. The dreams shaped into nightmares, the nightmares became unbearable. They were twisted into things that she had never wanted to happen. 

 

People screamed and died in front of her and for some reason-- she felt this sick form of satisfaction from it, as if it were her saving others lives. She grew tired and ill of seeing this, willing herself desperately to wake up. She couldn’t wake up. She was paralyzed. 

 

In this dream she walked to the mirror and looked at herself. Her head swirled with distortions, darkness buzzing around her head and in her mind and behind her eyes. 

 

The dream became a progression, she continued looking in the mirror. Her eyes grew more and more hollow, the blue deluded to a green, a sickly almost glowing green. Her skin’s pigment faded as if she barely worked anywhere near the sun. Scars snaked up the center of her right eye, burns appeared on her left arm. She was suddenly covered in blood and then not, slowly metal engulfed her shoulder, black metal snaked up her neck, covering the bottom of her chin. She blinked, feeling the cold chill of numbness grab her throat and her heart, sending her to a worse place. Wires appeared at her backside, replacing the wings she once had. She was tethered to a computer’s mainframe, various observation devices around her as well, she had a long off memory of being suspended in water at one point, but now she sat idly by. The cold chill of the air on her skin after being caught in this for ages took her. Then after a while it stopped, leaving her to more terrifying images. Soon enough she couldn’t feel the fear anymore, she couldn’t feel the dream anymore, reality snapped on her.

 

Her eyes opened to the apartment, the sun glowed into the sliding glass door. A woman slept next to her on the couch, the lamp was off, the room smelled like take away. She didn’t remembering ordering any of that. She sighed, standing up carefully as to not awake the other sleeping figure. She minded the cardboard boxes on the coffee table, sliding away from woman. A huge smile took her lips when she saw her, a spike of happiness taking her. It was good to have her here again.

 

Another knock and the sound of plastic, the clock read 6:45 AM. She cringed, hating the fact that whoever this was left this one so loudly. She didn’t want them to wake her Amélie. She grabbed it off the floor, playing it again, her brain lapsing. This time the static had words and the words rattled her. 

 

**_“Wake up, mon ange.”_ **

 

She awoke in a room on a couch, a blue couch with a vending machine in the corner. She was at the hospital. Angela had always had strange dreams when she was at the hospital. It would only figure that these were her thoughts turned into vivid paintings. Amélie hadn’t been home in ages, the woman she saw in the mirror was just a nightmare that she had play in her head quite often and the smell of take away was commonplace because that’s all she seemed to eat. 

 

She rationalized it, dismissing it immediately. 

 

She stood up, flattening out her lab coat, looking in the mirror on the wall to fix her hair and then realizing something a bit off. The coat she wore had her name stitched into it, but instead of white it was dark grey, under was a black turtleneck unlike her usual light blue scrubs. She shook her head, not remembering of this sudden wardrobe change. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something even weirder. A man in armor stood near a window, he smiled stiffly at her, nodding his head. He sipped from a styrofoam cup, visible steam arose from it.    
  
“Morning, Doctor Ziegler.” He nodded again, taking another sip. 

 

“Good Morning?” She quickly said, hating to be rude even when she was confused. She slipped out of the room, shutting the door calmly behind her. Internal screams rolled through her body as she eyed the hallway crowd. More guards clad in armor. She wondered when security had tightened so drastically.    
  
A woman came from a room around the bend of the hall, the large windows behind her reflecting in beautiful light. Her brown hair floated behind her as she approached the confused doctor. “Doctor Ziegler, come with me.” She sounded sure of herself, commanding. 

Angela rose a brow, her nature telling her to question. “Who are you? Where are we going?”

 

“Ziegler, we’ve been over this before. I introduced myself to you after the accident. Are you having another lapse in memory?” She sighed, shaking her head. “C’mon.”

 

Angela reluctantly followed, sighing harshly into the dry Hospital air. They rounded a bend, revealing a large bay of beds and areas to treat people. 

  
“I’m Doctor Ires.” The woman sighed, shaking her head, “You really don’t remember do you?”   
  
The blonde shook her head no, biting her lip as she was guided towards a large row of beds, some empty and others with occupants. 

 

“This is your assignment for the day. Your replacement for the night will come in twelve hours.” The woman left as quickly as she came, the other doctor was absolutely confused.

 

Angela stood stunned, looking down the fifteen beds. Five of which had patients, each appeared to have either a minor injury or a broken limb. She grabbed a holopad from a metal tray near the end of the row, on it was her name and a welcome message from an unknown source. She cleared the message to be shown the names of those in her row. Each was either a soldier or guard. However nowhere on this pad showed her the location in which she was, only that she was stationed in the medical bay on row A.

 

Perplexed she began swiftly searching through it until she was met by a voice coming from far behind her.

 

“I wouldn’t do that.” A person appeared before her, shaking her head. “Fall into line and nobody will hurt us.Not ever again.” 

 

The woman from her nightmares stood before her, she appeared tired and worn down. Her green eyes were more vibrant though, and wings lay at her back. She appeared to be doing better.

  
“Shhhh.” The figure hushed her, putting her finger to her lips. “Stay quiet. They’re always listening.” 

 

The blonde’s eyes widened and crossed as she met the finger. “Who are---” 

 

The woman was gone in an instant and she was again alone to a strange room in a building unknown to her. 

 

A man in a grey coat similar to her’s walked by then stopped, turning around to meet her. “Ah, Doctor Ziegler. It’s nice to finally meet you when you’re on your feet again. Congratulations on the successful surgery.” He shook her hand quickly. “I’m late for a meeting, but it was a pleasure.”   
  
Angela visibly cringed as her hand was taken and he left without time to answer any questions. A frown took her lips, her brain spinning in questions and plausible answers. Did she listen to the illusionary woman? Or did she just pretend that this was normal and go on with life? It wasn’t short of what she usually did on a daily basis. Would it really be any different to fall into ignorance? 

 

Static clinged to her ears, her eyes blurring again, it was as if the tape at her apartment was playing again. She heard a click. She opened her eyes to the balcony of her apartment, a cigarette in her fingers, just about to be put to her lips. She jolted forward, nearly falling over the railing in shock. She blinked, looking around frantically. Far away she heard the music of a band playing somewhere, was it on a radio or at a street corner? She didn’t know. The music began to discord, leaving her utterly overwhelmed. Crashing, clanging, sour notes, all muddling together until it entered her mind in a single burst of violence. She ran to the bathroom, splashing water into her face. She gawked up, green eyes shining back at her. 

 

The bathroom scene began to peel away until she realized she was sitting in a chair in an apartment with a woman. The woman at the other end of the table was playing a constant chain of static, her eyes opened wide in shock as she realized that the doctor had broken free.

 

She stood herself up quickly, her whole body aching, her brain spinning yet again. She felt faint, out of it, completely drugged. She felt someone’s arms take her and not in the rough way. She was held gently, cooed too, kissed. She was sat down into this person’s arms. She looked down at the woman’s right arm. Cauchemar. 

 

Her heart skipped a beat, her thoughts racing around. Was she awake? Was she having flashbacks? Who was she? 

 

All of these thoughts built up until they created a horrific amount of nausea. The sort of feeling you would get from being on a rollercoaster with too much force.

 

_ Whiplash. _

 

She let herself be held by the woman she once loved, a somberness replacing the momentum. Angela had been changed and reforged by mindgames and the woman she once loved had begun to hold her again for the first time in seven years. 

 

“Widowmaker.” She began, her voice leaving her mouth quietly in hopes not to wake up if this was another psychological trick.

 

“Hm?” She replied, stroking her hands through her blonde locks, putting her hair back into a bun atop her head.

“Am I awake this time?” She felt the dizziness creep back in again.

 

“It’s hard to tell, mon ange.” She spoke in a hushed tone, carefully finishing up her handy work, when she finished she gingerly put her face to her neck. “Can you feel this?” She whispered, the other woman visibly shivering.

 

“Y-Yes.” She felt the fear subside and then engulf her entirely. It caught her throat. “Where.. Where are we?”

 

“Annecy. Don’t worry.” She kissed the crook of her neck. “You’re safe with me. We were trying to work back the effects of your reconditioning. You…”    
  
The woman at the table shook her head swiftly, her face growing grim as if something bad were to have happened and telling someone with a fragile mind would set them off.

  
“You will find out in time.” She corrected herself gracefully. “But whatever happens, you need to know it wasn’t your fault.”


	2. Recall

 

“ _ Nothing was my fault _ .” She whispered aloud, the hush in the room breaking. She looked around quickly, the daze dripping away from her head. She sat in the same apartment but with only the woman at the table. 

 

The sniper was gone, the sky was black with stars high above and city lights below. 

 

“Come with me, Dr. Ziegler.” The woman at the table was the woman from the hospital earlier. Wasn’t she? She didn’t know anymore. 

 

“Where?” She asked, the innocence leaving her voice to violence, her body shivering from that return. 

 

“Does it matter?” She asked, hefting out a sigh that was the size of a full blown funeral with a casket to match. 

  
“Where is Amelie?” Her voice cracked, the violence melting into beams of pure light. 

 

The woman shook her head, smiling, “Oh Angela, I wish you knew what was happening to you.” 

 

_ Snap. _

 

Her eyes burst open, her figure shivering as if she had gone through a nightmare. She felt cold hands on her shoulders, resting on her bare skin. 

 

“I’m glad you joined us, Doctor.” A man’s voice hugged the air with a heavy French undertone.

His smile made her body tense, his mustache curled ever so slightly, his eyes meaning well. A woman sat next to him, smiling blankly, her eyes not visible.    
  
Another man walked around the table, filling wine glasses with venom. Before she could put her hand out to stop the man across the table from drinking from one, he drank, falling to the floor. The glass flew from his hand into the air, floating there as his body collapsed in slow motion, the glass breaking, pieces flying everywhere. She watched as the woman with the blank smile withered into a widow. 

 

Widowmaker stood with her back to her, the night coming through blinds, the blue light hitting her just so. Blood stained the wallpaper. Angela felt her knees give way, she sat defeated behind her, hearing words drift past her ears on the wind that slipped through the abandoned frame of the building.

 

“You’re fine, Amelie. You escaped with minor cuts and bruises, nothing too bad. Go, be home with your husband.” 

 

“Nothing’s the matter with her,____.” 

  
The name didn’t connect in her head, it was as if he wasn’t just murdered in his sleep… he was erased from existence instead. 

 

This was just another twisted daydream, she screamed in her mind to awake, to not be wrapped in a fabric trail of lies and memories. 

 

She closed her eyes, folding her arms in on herself, gasping for breath, her ears catching brief moments of sound. The room roared to life.

 

She sat up abruptly, a white sheet over her torso and legs. Metal was beneath her, cold unforgiving metal.

 

A man with a scalpel jerked backward, blinking out the confusion from his eyes. 

 

_ He was about ready to do her autopsy. _

 

Anger and anguish arose from her chest as she grabbed his neck, bringing him close to her, the cold was real this time. Confusion and fear brushed his features as she picked him off of the floor with a single hand. 

 

“Am I awake this time,  _ herr doktor _ ?” She growled the last word out, bringing him closer to her.

 

He choked and sputtered, features withering with air deprivation. 

 

She set him down roughly, glaring at him, watching as his body slid against the wall. She stood up from the table, the white sheet slipping to the floor, scars lay across the entirety of her body. Her own breath was ragged as she stepped forward to meet the man who lay against the wall.

 

“ _ Answer my question _ .” She bitterly spat, watching as he shielded his face from her.

 

“You shouldn’t be alive.” He mumbled, shaking desperately, trying to control his feelings.

 

“What?” She snapped, raising a brow as she caught her eye on her reflection upon a metal cabinet of presumably more bodies.

 

A cut that looked recently healed went down almost the entirety of her right eye, half of her head was shaved. The half that was shaved contained augmentations similar to that of Sombra. A cut ran from the end of her nostrils to her chin. She traced her finger along it, listening as the man on the floor slipped trying to get up to do something about her.

 

WIthout thinking she moved forward, grabbing him again by the neck, bringing him back up the wall, her nose to his. 

 

_ A crash. _

 

She left the room wearing a white lab coat with nothing beneath it. With each step, the pain in her feet was more obvious. She looked down to them, both looked burned. She shook her head, clicking her tongue to the top of her mouth casually. 

 

The halls were somewhat abandoned aside from the occasional piece of equipment lining the hall. She burst through a pair of doors, the coat blowing backward. People walked around busily, some didn’t notice her and others did. She heard a pen drop, the room going quiet. 

 

A smile lined her lips, she felt the urge to _ thank _ them for taking  _ good care _ of her. Her thoughts were cut short when she saw a tall man in a mask standing before her.

 

He had a heir of mystery surrounding him, his atmosphere cut off from the rest of the room. His existence made her question if she was awake at all-- or would be awake at all. 

 

_ This was reality. _

 

“Angela, aren’t you supposed to be dead?” He cracked his neck to the side, then to the other side, keeping it angled towards her, the glare obvious through darkened eyes. 

 

“I could say the same about you.” She cooly said, returning his glare but with a smile.

 

“Talon doesn’t like loose ends when their experiments go wrong.” He explained, grabbing out a pair of guns.

  
“It’s a shame I went wrong.” She pulled out her right hand, fresh blood dripping from it. “If anything, I don’t even remember being experimented on.” 

 

She felt arms wrap around her, keeping her restrained. “Don’t struggle,  _ ma chérie _ . Come with us.”

 

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” Angela asked, feeling herself being tugged from reality again, she brought herself back immediately. “ _ Keep me awake this time _ .” 

 

Before she knew it she was being placed on a transport aircraft and brought to who knows where. She was told if she had asked questions they would’ve killed her. Five guards and two elite members of Talon to keep her down?  _ She felt exceptionally special.  _

 

As they continued through the air she was told things by the spider via whispers in her ear. She blinked a few times, wondering why on Earth she was telling her these things. Masked man-- Reyes-- even nodded toward her as if something sinister beneath Talon’s grasp was going on. Her eyes were covered by Widow’s hand, her body going numb, she heard the sound of screams of the men, and then the plane starting to jerk downward. Soon enough they were back in flight. Her eyes adjusted quickly as soon as the spider’s hand was lifted from her face.

 

A woman in purple was at the helm of the airship now, a smile planted on her face, the guards from earlier nowhere to be seen.

 

“You can speak now, Doc.” His gravely voice filled the void of the craft, barely audible over the sound of the engines.

 

“First of all, what’s going on?” She said after a while, trying to get her thoughts to form in her brain.

 

“Is that really all you wanted to know?” Sombra asked with a slight edge of amusement. 

 

“Sombra.” Reaper growled, head snapping towards her.

 

“It’s a good question!” She snapped back, turning the craft to the side slightly to cause turbulence. 

 

“Talon kidnapped you from your home about four months ago. They decided to take your technology and leave you to aimlessly work for their medical staff.” Reaper began, looking down at the floor. “After a while they began to detach you from the staff and send you into testing. You were basically a fish for a week while they had your own machines work on your body. During that process you were put through multiple tasks while submerged in water. They damaged you and watched as your body put itself back together in a few seconds, to a few minutes depending on what they did to you.” He stopped talking for a bit, waiting for someone to take on the topic.

 

“One of their tests went haywire and you were rendered permanently blind. They fixed that by installing optics rather than organic eyes. They even went as far as maturing your muscle tissues.” Sombra added, taking them down in a steep downward fashion. “You’re basically what you hate. Remember that sweet old woman, Ana Amari and her weaponized biotech? Your body produces nanobots now.” She sounded rather excited by that, but she stopped herself and finished this story, “They also stole my technology and augmented you to be able to interact with any machines, so you and I could work together cohesively. However, after they did that, they made a stupid mistake. One of their little tests went wrong and it threw you into cardiac arrest. I remember snooping around during that crisis. Eventually you were labeled dead and ended up in a morgue somewhere with a different name tethered around your foot. Funny, huh?” 

 

Angela swallowed, hard. She felt her stomach drop. “I died?  _ Well that makes more sense _ .” She looked around the hull of the ship, trying to find something familiar to stare at, all that she was returned with was blackened steel. A feeling of cold dread hit her heart and made her take a second to process. 

 

“They almost destroyed you enough times, anyway.” Sombra shrugged. “Some scientist got too excited over how you healed and kept experimenting on you until he got bored. I honestly don’t know where they find these guys.” She shrugged, the steep incline continuing.

 

The craft landed roughly and began a nauseating descent downward on an elevator platform. Darkness clung to the hull and the room around them, lights turned on one by one as they continued down. Soon they stopped in an underground hangar, who knows where.

 

“Talon just leaves these bases lying around in case of another crisis. Thankfully I got into the mainframe so they can’t detect that this is being used again.” She cackled, unbuckling herself and then standing up from the cockpit. 

 

“Now begins our fun. Care to join us, Doctor Ziegler?” Sombra asked, cracking her back.

 

“Do I have a choice?” She asked, her voice faint.

 

“Not a chance.” Widowmaker chimed in, smirking. 

  
Sombra led the four of them to a room, chairs and tables and computers lined the walls a large “T” was emblazoned in the wall. Reaper sat down first at a table that could be considered a conference table.

 

Sombra and Widow sat as well, and the woman in only a lab coat sat down at the end of the table.

“Gabe, did you want to fill in our guest more?” She asked in a sinister filled tone. “Because I think she’d like to hear this.” 

 

“Angela, I trust you won’t leak this information to our enemy, is that correct?” Widowmaker asked before Reaper had a chance to speak.

  
“The Overwatch Remnants?” Angela asked in a quickly rising tone.

 

“No. Talon.” Reaper asked in a rather excited voice.

 

“Talon?” She whispered back, cocking her head to the side. “I thought you worked for Talon.” 

 

“As much as I enjoy working for a criminal organization, they have one too many laws and regulations. They take far too much to be enjoyable anymore. They even took it farther than my own standards.” He explained, tapping a grouping of his clawed fingers against the table.

 

“You’ve murdered innocent people, Gabriel.” Angela said, unafraid of the repercussions of her voiced opinion. 

 

“I know what I’ve done.” He answered back, shaking his head. “But I’m trying to do something good for once. Something-- morally perceived as good, that is.”    
  
“Just to make yourself look better?” She snapped back.

 

“Angela. Hear me out.” He grumbled, coughed and then returned to speaking, “We need to take down Talon. They have purchased the launch codes on nukes and are readily arming them to be sent at villages as a message.” He stood up, banging his hands into the table. “They are going to wipe them off the face of the planet.”   
  


Angela was taken aback, her eyes widened in fear. She felt the table shaking from his own anger. 

 

“Sombra has made friends in several different countries over the months you’ve been being worked on. Widowmaker has scouted the locations of the warheads, and I have been listening in on meetings. They can’t do this.” He hissed, obvious personal connections to these villages showing in his voice. “We’re reorganizing Blackwatch.” 

 

Her face grew even more fearful, her body shaking at this point. “You’re what?”

 

“Overwatch was recently recalled, but that ape doesn’t know what’s happening.” Reaper’s voice became less violent and more at ease. “We have to take action into our own hands.”

 

“All of you agree to this?” She asked in surprise, the trio in front of her nodding.

 

“We’re amplifying the transmission he sent out from here. I hope that monkey finds his way here.” Sombra quickly added, leaning back in her seat, twisting herself back and forth, back and forth. “We need all of the help we can get.”

 

Moments passed where Angela didn’t know what to say, they worked around her, starting up old systems, transmitters, amplifications.

 

“Fine.” She answered finally, feeling a pat on her head as acknowledgement. 

 

They set up a working computer, dampening all other signals in. Carefully Sombra tinkered with the inner-workings, mangling a computer until it worked the way she commanded it to. 

 

Sombra took a deep breath and then pressed a button, a smile taking her lips. “It should be only a matter of time.”

 

“Excellent.” His voice clung to the air, bringing fear to Angela’s chest.

  
_ \--OVERWATCH RECALL CODE: 9995 RECALL IMMEDIATELY TO THE COORDINATES AS FOLLOWS-- _


	3. Spine

She sat awkwardly in her new surroundings in a bedroom off from the main communications hub. She was still only clothed in a lab coat, her body a mystery to her. Angela carefully slid back onto the bed, feeling her back ache. She’d have to fashion a new Valkyrie suit before she could engage in any combat.

Other than that strong feeling the other thoughts danced around it in swing. Augmentations. Self-healing. She ran her finger down her spine once she sat up again, feeling metal greet her finger tips. She ran her fingers along the two spots for her wings, they had been modified as well. She sighed, taking the coat off and setting it on the bed.   
  
She walked into a small bathroom with a singular mirror, gazing at herself with intrigue.

 Her eyes were blazing green, her hair was cut in an interesting fashion, her face had thinned some and her ribs were showing a bit more. She looked mostly the same aside from various scars, old burn marks and a few strange incision areas. Pain began to take hold of her feet again, she had to go back to sitting immediately.   
  
A knock came at her door, she covered herself with the coat, “Come in.” She awkwardly said, the sniper walking in afterward.   
  
“I went through the supply closets to find you something to wear temporarily. We’ll have to either steal back your staff and suit or you’ll have to make due with what we have. Which is not much.” Her voice was full of ice but it meant well, even a small smile pried at her usually wall covered lips.   


“It’ll have to do for now.” She urged her to leave with a simple hand movement, staring narrowly at her. She had no idea of her intentions. The last time they had met, she was taking out her husband and defecting to Talon. Angela didn’t want to remember that.

 The sniper left without question, bitterly shutting the door behind her with a click that sounded more like a gun being set. Angela cringed, biting her lip, holding onto the clothes that were thrown to her.

 She let the coat fall to the floor again, a smile taking her lips as she felt the cold set in her skin once more. Her body fell frozen as she slipped on layer by layer. An army green tank top with a small “T” stitched into the fabric, a pair of sweats that were almost cargo pants and some rather old and clunky shoes.

 When she left the room she peered around the large dome like room, large metal panes covered something. She traced the wall to a button, which when pushed, opened these panes to reveal an arsenal of machinery and parts. More than she had ever imagined. Why was a satellite outpost so chalk full of parts?   
  
After a shrug and a forced smile of excitement, she began to grab as many full pieces of old guard armor that she could. Each was forged black steel and carbon fiber. The tools were the next aspect she had to find, and goodness that was hard. She placed out each piece of armor onto a metal table that rose from the center of the room, and then stepped back, grabbing a spare sheet of newsprint covered in oil and an old permanent marker.

 Carefully she scrawled out measurements, designs and other things. It was hard to find anything close to what she had once used. Nevertheless this was going decently for such sparse technological bits. Servos, motors, emitters, everything she needed was found eventually inside of old tools and parts that were broken and she would mend.

Hours passed without food or water, the work was gaining steam until she found herself less and less aware of time. Time scared her now. After that entire lapse of it she hadn’t been able to keep a stiff grasp on it anymore.

 Angela wiped the sweat from her brow, her muscles glistening in the pale light. She carefully brought the welding mask she had found hours ago, up, dirt obvious on her pale cheeks. A grin encased her lips, it had been reforged. As for her wings? They were better than they had been before. She was proud of herself.

 Footsteps came from the hall, a tall man with a completely disfigured face walked by casually, his hues glistening from the dark of the hood he wore. He stopped with his back to her, a small laugh entering the air. “You’re as crafty as ever, Ziegler. But what about your staff?”  
  
The woman grabbed a long black, red and orange plated staff from the wall, a smirk forming on her lips. “I just need an specific emitter and I can heal and empower you.”

 

“Good timing. I was just paying a visit to Talon while you were working. Here.” He walked over with a large piece of equipment he had been hiding. “I found what was left of your staff. I hope whatever that part was is in there. They scrapped most everything you used to use and burned the rest. What a waste.”

 

She didn’t have that fear before, of the man in front of her, her heart still pounded, but she was in control. Angela shook her head, grabbing the part from him, her heart dropping. It was what she had wanted but they had destroyed the rest? _What barbarians._ She hissed softly, setting it on the table. With a few pried off pieces of metal and wires she freed the core. A sigh shifted from her throat and to the air, the part being slid into the new casing. A vibration encompassed the staff, shaking it until it stabilized. Perfect.

 

“What of my blaster?” She questioned, nursing the staff to full power.

 

“Gone to shreds.” He grabbed his own gun from the holster at his side, setting it in front of her. “Take it. I have too many anyway.”

 

She stepped back, looking down at the scrapped metal and blood coated surface. She ran her finger down the surface, feeling each crack and nook. She had begun to wonder how many fights it had gone through, or if it had only been one.

 

“Danke, Reyes.” She murmured in a sweetened tone, setting it next to her staff. “I’ll modify it and put it to good use.”

 

He nodded with a grumble, walking away from the bright room and back into the shadows of the hallways.

 

She froze in time, gripping the gun back up into her hand, holding the trigger with her finger. A wicked smile forced her lips upward.

 

“Dr. Ziegler.” A familiar voice echoed into the room.

Angela looked up, dropping the gun, the smile fading slowly but surely away.  
  
Sombra stood before her, glancing down at her rudimentary weapons. A smile taking her own lips. “Nice job, friend. I see you’ve made use of the old tech around here. Anyway, that’s not why I’ve come to visit. I need to fix something of your’s.” She pointed at her own eyes and then at her’s. “They see us through you.”

 

She was taken aback by this, shutting her eyes quickly. Then opened them very carefully.

 

“They only care about where we are. I’ll have to fix that before we leave onto the next safehouse.” She said with a hand over her mouth. “However they were stupid enough to leave out microphones so they can’t hear our plans.” A laugh followed. “Come with me.”

 

The fair doctor nodded, following the hacker through a few halls until they reached a rather dark room.

 

“This won’t be as easy as if we were at the main branch, but I’ll do my best. I promise this won’t hurt. Do you trust me?” A smirk apprehended her, her body growing excited.

 

“No, but I’ll let you do what you need.” She answered truthfully through grit teeth.

 

“Well, this ought to take a few seconds at best, a few minutes at worst. Let’s do this. Shall we?” She pulled up five screens on her end, tapped part of Angela’s new spine with the other hand and then opened a browser. Several screens came up in green, she quickly swiped through code wall after code wall until finding it. “Ah. Wow that was a good spot for that. I give them credit.”

 

Her vision dimmed until she was blind, hearing Sombra comment a few times on how her sight would be back soon. After what felt like ages her eyes glowed back to life. The screens that were pulled up green now shown an interesting red. The screens vanished, leaving her feeling almost human again.

 

“You’re good to go!” She waved her fingers.

 

“That easy?” She questioned in a quiet a reserved way.

 

“Yeah, this is the reason they hired me. To make things complicated because they couldn’t do it themselves.” She chuckled, sitting in an abandoned chair.

 

“Well then I must ask… would you help me with my valkyrie suit?” She felt bad for asking but after that she knew she was more of an asset than an ass.

 

Sombra snorted, nodding. “I thought you’d never ask, chica.” The last bit came out as a taunt, a laugh encompassing her body.

 

Soon enough the two of them were standing in the large room, piecing old and new technology together until it started to become something more than what it had been before. She mounted it onto herself, clasping it together.

 

The dark armor clad her body, her wings steadily coming from her backside, her staff in hands, gun on holster. It felt so right.

 

“Glad we could get that ready for you. We have to move soon. I’ll get those two to prepare the transport.”  She ran off down a corridor towards the main loading bay.

 

“Thank you, Sombra.” She nodded, walking off down towards the room she had had for a while. She grabbed the lab coat from the bed, setting it on her shoulder. She sprinted towards the loading bay, hearing crashes echo above. They had been found already.

 

Panic hit her gut then subsided into nothing, instinct taking over. She’d keep them alive if things got messy. Sombra hopped into the front, reaper and widow were boarding as well. She hopped in, a bang echoing even louder above. A door behind them opened, the ship steadily turning to face it. Sombra gunned it forward, the back door on the ship thudding closed. Angela gripped the staff in her hands, readying it to heal whomever she had to.

 

The tunnel they went through blurred past her eyes through the slit of a window on the front. Light after light, burnt out fixture after burnt out fixture, zooming straight into the unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short, but the next chapter will be full of action and longer!


End file.
